Dirty-Energy Hypocrisy Symbolizes the World's Approach to Climate Change
The UN Climate Conference convenes in Dubai, and the top-20 energy users plan to announce a doubling of fossil fuel use
Knock-knock. Who’s there? America’s climate change warriors. Okay, what do you want? We want to announce that we are doing all we can to fight climate change, so between now and 2030, the United States will double the amount of oil, gas, and coal to be extracted.
Oh, great, wait! W-w-w-whatttt?!
Absurd, you whisper? Indeed. The absurdity, which borders on insanity, will soon be expressed in the desert, the same one under which billions of plants and other marine life had the audacity to decompose and create the fuel we now overuse to destroy our earth.
Diplomats, environmentalists and business leaders will gather in Dubai to hash out how each nation will reach its climate goals and debate whether to issue a statement on phasing out fossil fuels in the coming years.
In July, U.A.E. officials said the country by 2030 would cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 19% compared with 2019. But the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. plans to boost oil production capacity to 5 million barrels a day by 2027 from the current 4 million barrels a day (We’re Producing Too Much Oil).
The 20 nations planning on ramping up dirty energy usage last year pledged at COP27 in Egypt that they would “ramp down their use of fossil fuels.” I am unsure how ramping up leads them down unless these nations regard energy use as a roller coaster.
The 2023 Production Gap Report provides newly expanded country profiles for 20 major fossil-fuel-producing countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America. These profiles show that most of these governments continue to provide significant policy and financial support for fossil fuel production (Governments Plan to Produce Double).
How is it possible to take any of these horseshit-laced governmental efforts seriously? As the snow melts and the formerly emerald-green Alpine glades turn Colorado brown, temperatures rise to levels not sustainable for life in an increasing number of places across the Earth. Climate-caused destruction and disruptions are now so frequent that the world’s citizens must plan their lives accordingly; and yet, greed and the never-ending quest for more profits lead governments to look as in the eyes and menacingly mock us: “We are ramping down but not before we ramp way up so buckle your seat belts and keep your hands in the car.”
By 2030, the U.S. expects to cut coal production by 43%, while China plans a 15% reduction. That drop will be overshadowed by new coal production in India, Indonesia and Russia, the report said.
Although the U.S. is phasing out coal, its oil production will reach, and remain at, record levels of 19 million to 21 million barrels a day between 2024 and 2050. U.S. natural gas is projected to increase continually, reaching 1.2 trillion cubic meters in 2050, the report said. Most of that oil and gas is for export (We’re Producing Too Much Oil).
The COP27 event in Egypt resulted in 18,500 tons of carbon emissions, almost two full days of the emissions from a standard coal plant. As we can see, not much was accomplished last year if the top-20 dirty energy users plan on ramping up.
Of course, it’s good that people are talking and even pretending things are getting serious, but humankind’s hypocritical streak is proving longer than the sympathetic one.